Vampirella / Dejah Thoris #1 - Dynamite Entertainment
Written by Erik Burnham
Art by Ediano Silva
Colors by Denei Ribeiro
Letters by Troy Peteri from A Larger World Studios
Cover by Jay Anacleto & Rain Berado
If there is one thing that Dynamite does very well, it's how they treat their classic characters. In that same respect, they also seem to find way to combine these characters into stories that makes sense. Sure you can just throw characters together for a cash grab, but can you make the story a good and sustainable one? It's time to find out, as two of the biggest female characters in their catalogue are coming together. Time to dive into the pages of Vampirella / Dejah Thoris #1.
Things aren't exactly great on Barsoom right now, but they are getting by. A discovery is made on an otherwise mundane day that is so shocking, it is taken right to the Jeddak himself. Now a decision has to be made as to whether they need to act with force or restraint. Dejah Thoris takes her case to the Jeddak, and she goes to explore this discovery. Just when she thinks it's a waste of time, things start to progress rather quickly. After a close call (or two), she meets her alien visitor. Not exactly a spoiler alert when it's in the title, is it? When Dejah meets Vampirella, it doesn't take her long to find out why she was there. It also seems like their people could be suffering from a similar problem. The difference is, one of them as made a decision that would speed up the need for a fix exponentially. At the end of the issue we find out that the clock is ticking for a potential disaster.
This book definitely did what it needed to do in the beginning. The story is clear, the meeting between the two characters make sense and we're set up for a nice limited run. At the same time, it didn't really wow me in any particular way. While it all makes sense, I wasn't knocked out by anything in this first issue. That being said, there is great potential for the upcoming issues, but it's just that...potential. Without spoiling anything, you don't necessarily WANT this catastrophic event to come to pass, but at the same time, you know how amazing the action would be if it did. It also creates quite a conflict between the two title characters, again, potentially. I feel like betting on the potential of this book, especially with a writer like Erik Burnham involved, is a pretty safe one. The art is quite good too, so it's not like there is much holding me back from wanting to continue. I think it's great that the non-action aspects of these characters are being explored, but I'm still going to need a bit more to compliment that at some point. Hopefully that is right around the corner.
RATING: PICK UP